PROBABLY KARABAGH, LATE 18TH CENTURY

This beautiful Dragon carpet is a superb example of the Two-Dragon type carpet (Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets, Vol.II, London, 1978,p.25), in which the expansive multi-lozenge lattice of the earliest dragon carpets is narrowed to a 'loom-width' field design with a two lozenge lattice that places an emphasis on the palmettes of the central axis. A very close comparable but with slightly wider field design is in the collection of the Iparmüvészeti Museum, Budapest (Serare Yetkin, op.cit, fig.144, p.28). Two other carpets in the Textile Museum, dated by Charles Grant Ellis to the early 18th century, have similarly bold drawing and spacing, (Charles Grant Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington, 1975, pls. 6 and 7).

The flower and single bud border of this dragon carpet is unusual and does not conform to the typical Karabagh border designs as outlined by Yetkin (op.cit, chapter 7, p.83). Related border designs can be found on a North West Persian Tree carpet, dated 1700, formerly in the collection of Dr. Bode, that was one of the war losses of the Berlin Museum (Kurt Erdmann, Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, London,1970, fig 176, Inv. Nr. I25, p.140) and on the partial border of a 19th century medallion carpet from the Hagia Sophia, now in the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Inv. No. 751 (1411) in, (Serare Yetkin, op.cit, Vol I, London, 1978, pl 101).